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Borger couple indicted on mail fraud

Indictment states couple took mail items from trash cans at Skellytown Main Post Office

AMARILLO — A Lubbock federal grand jury indicted a Borger couple on 15 counts of mail fraud, alleging the couple used information from discarded catalogs and other items to place more than $3,000 in unauthorized orders on legitimate customers’ accounts.

The indictment, released Thursday, said Stormie Dawn Dial and Charles Henry Abernathy, a married couple, took mail items from trash cans at and near the Skellytown Main Post Office before the couple moved from Skellytown to Borger in August.

The mail items the couple took contained customer account numbers and pre-approved source codes, which the couple used to place 65 fraudulent orders by mail under fake names and unauthorized addresses from February 2007 until sometime around August, the indictment said.

Some of the fake account names include “Ms. Abernathy,” “Aber Nathy,” “Paul Marvin” and “Ms. Stormie Pio,” the indictment said.

Of those orders, about 15 items totaling about $3,000 were approved and the victims listed as account holders received bills for the items, while the couple placed another 40 orders that were not processed, the indictment said.

The indictment said Dial and Abernathy had the fraudulently purchased items sent to their own post office box or their address in Skellytown, and that the fraudulent orders were delivered to the couple’s home in Borger after Dial forwarded their mail.

The couple also opened accounts in their real names for merchandise and monthly magazine subscriptions, but did not pay for the subscriptions, the indictment said.